November 11, 2012 AT 12:00 am

Open-Source Hardware “Why it won’t happen” (2002 and 1999)

Open-source software has obviously captured the popular imagination. It’s both an altruistic effort at cooperation and a passive-aggressive stab at the reigning dominant players. It works well for some products, some programmers, and some companies. But open-source techniques aren’t getting traction in hardware, and they’re not likely to any time soon – Jim Turley.

And from 1999…

Because copying hardware is so hard, the question of whether we’re allowed to do it is not vitally important. I see no social imperative for free hardware designs like the imperative for free software – Richard Stallman — On “Free Hardware”